Various apparatus are known for storing and dispensing lengths of material from reels or spools. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,841,343 shows a fixed stand for displaying and dispensing various types of tubing which are mounted on individual shafts inserted through a bore in the reel on which the tubing is wound. U.S. Pat. No. 3,897,914 shows an apparatus for unreeling wire rope from a plurality of reels mounted on pallets individually positioned in robust fixed framework.
Apparatus of the types shown in these patents are not suitable for handling rather large rolls of delicate web material such as 35 mm photographic film. Such rolls may comprise a length of film of several thousand feet and must be handled with care to prevent the convolutions of the roll from shifting axially and to avoid contact of the roll with objects which might damage the film. Because of these concerns, such rolls commonly are transported in individual containers to various processing apparatus, such as perforators and spoolers, where the rolls are manually removed from their containers and loaded onto and removed from the processing apparatus. To ease the burden on the persons handling such rolls, the weight of the rolls is controlled by limiting the length of the film. While such limits are considered necessary for manual handling to avoid injuries to workers as well as damage to the film, the throughput to the processing apparatus is hampered severely by the requirement to use small rolls. Thus, robotic handling systems have been developed to eliminate the job of manual handling and to permit the use of far larger rolls, such as that shown in commonly assigned U.S. application Ser. No. 847,154 filed Mar. 5, 1992. For such robotic handling systems to function best, a need exists for a rack on which such larger rolls can be precisely positioned and which itself can be precisely located for loading and unloading by the robotic handling system. A need also exists for such a rack which can be accurately assembled and which, if damaged, can be readily and accurately repaired.